Thin films are used in semiconductor devices to provide a number of different properties. Generally, the design and deposition of a thin film may be a compromise between some properties such as film resistivity, thickness, and the ability of the film to server as a metal diffusion barrier, as well as a nucleation layer. Ideally, a thin film may be a conformal film; however, real films generally exhibit some degree of thickness variation. Currently available thin films may not have sufficiently low resistivity, may have too much thickness variability, may have insufficient metal diffusion resistance, and/or may not provide good nucleation for additional layers. For example, currently available films may not have sufficient metal diffusion resistance to interconnect metals such as copper, to strong N-type metals such as titanium aluminum alloys and aluminum for silicon-based n-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) transistor devices, and for group III-V based NMOS transistor devices. As another example, currently available films, such as titanium nitride or tantalum nitride, may not serve as a good nucleation layer for chemical vapor deposition of aluminum or titanium, as well as their alloys.